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High Notes

An Opera Star Returns To the Scene of the Crime

A secret love. A bloody murder. A descent into madness. Natalie Dessay will plunge again into the title role in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Metropolitan Opera next week.

Natalie Dessay in the title role of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor."
Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Ms. Dessay portrays the doomed heroine, Lucia, who is forced to marry, kills her husband on her wedding night and then dies after going insane. She sings a climactic aria in Act III while splashed with blood. Ms. Dessay, who played Lucia when the production, directed by Mary Zimmerman, opened the Met's season in 2007, has come to be identified with the role.

Now, the French soprano, 45 years old, returns to a part designed for a singer who can handle "coloratura"—elaborate trills and zippy singing. How does she approach her character's madness and death? Quickly: The structure of the action doesn't give her a lot of time to get into character.

"I have a quick change right before, so I can't really concentrate. I think of the horrible things she has just lived. She has just murdered her husband because he tried to rape her," she said.

Imagining that moment is more effective than watching any horror flick. "I like scary movies, but I laugh at them. So it would not be good preparation," she said.

The opera takes place in mid-19th century Scotland, where Lucia's brother arranges her marriage to save their family fortune. Ms. Dessay says Ms. Zimmerman set the story "in a corseted society to reinforce the idea that underneath this very polite and civilized society, people are cruel and abuse the others for their own sake."

One change that will make this run different than the last time around: In 2007, Ms. Dessay—dressed as Lucia—was the poster girl for the Met's season campaign. Her picture was all over the city, which was startling for the singer. "I prefer to stay hidden behind a character. It's the safety of the soul," she said, adding that she had one quibble with the ads: "My name was so small!"